


Blood-Stained Snow

by belmonte



Category: UTAU, Vocaloid
Genre: Original au, TLOTCC, The Legend of the Crystal Cave
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-18 19:14:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16523021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belmonte/pseuds/belmonte
Summary: The family of three plan to escape the Kavaré Ruins with Millicent.





	Blood-Stained Snow

**Author's Note:**

> I don't have much to say besides that I don't claim ownership of the voice synths these characters are based off of.   
> This story will get a bit bloody near the end of the story. Don't read if that makes you uncomfortable. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this story and future ones of TLOTCC to come!

It was a cold tension-filled night.

With soft steps, an older woman made her way down the hallway, lit with dim flickering candles in their sconces. The Masters had retired to their private chambers for the night― or at least she hoped. They often retired around a couple hours time before on Sundays, and it was on this particular Sunday that Mosa Moane was sneaking through the shadows of the Kavaré-Hepplicaté Manor.   
A long thought over plan was being put into action tonight. Her daughter Lune was busy putting the candles in another hallway out. They'd have to escape in the darkness, but it was a risk they'd have to take. The Masters' eyes were notoriously bad in the darkness. With luck, they'd be blind as bats if they were to wake up, and they could make their escape. 

But first, there was one more stop for Mosa Moane.

She made herself breathe quietly. Yet despite her efforts she could feel her heart hammering in fear. For most of her life she'd been nothing but optimistic― but now all that could go wrong was all too apparent to her. They had to take every precaution possible.

Quietly, she made her way to the room at the end of the corridor. She cautiously placed her hand on the doorknob and slowly turned it. The mahogany door opened, and the older woman entered the White Room.

The White Room had a title that didn't fit its interior. As Mosa shut the door behind her, she looked around, surveying her surroundings as best she could in the dim light of the room.

The dark floor creaked slightly under her feet as she approached the crimson canopy bed in the center of the room.

The girl slumbered peacefully. On this snowy night, moonlight spilled from the window, illuminating the sleeping girl's face. She looked almost otherworldly. 

"Emagine."  
The woman said in a quiet and strained voice, and the girl opened her pale and gleaming yellow eyes.

"Mosa!!" the girl chirped happily. The woman winced and put a finger over her lips.

"Be quiet." she whispered.

The girl stared at her with those pale and gleaming yellow eyes. They had to save her!

"We're playing a game."

Emagine's eyes widened in surprise and child-like delight. "A game?"

"Yes, sweetie. We must be very quiet."

The girl had already clambered out of bed, clutching a stuffed rabbit, which she held up.

"Can I bring Rose?" she asked innocently, beaming.

"Yes, yes, of course." With a small sigh, she hoisted the girl up and began making her way out of the room. Occasionally she'd step on one of the many toys that littered the room, or her foot would brush against one of the aforementioned toys, but she still made it to the door. With her free hand, she twisted the doorknob and cautiously stepped out into the corridor, covering Emagine partially with the shawl she wore as she stepped out. 

Lune was waiting outside, a dim candle in hand. The other candles in the sconces on the wall had had their blackened and burnt wicks blown out by the girl just earlier.   
Her face looked ghouler; sinister even, in the candlelight. A cold draft blew past and Mosa shivered ever so slightly. They'd best hurry. Time was ticking away, second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour. And they had to make it before midnight struck at the latest.

So the elder woman carrying the girl and the teenager carrying the candle started down the shadowy corridor. 

Emagine blinked, staring at the retreating corridor behind them. Was this truly a game? She could sense fear coming off in waves from the older females. 

Lune's azure eyes glittered with a new determination. They were going to go to the kitchen and then to the cellar where Shiodd was waiting. Then they'd walk outside and hurry to the nearby Rose Gardens, where they'd recoup and head into the city. Millicent, or Emagine, as Mosa, Lune's mother, called her, was in danger here.

It'd first been two months ago when Lune had first learned of the Masters' plan. She had been busy in the vacant room next to the Library, dusting the escritoire of the room. But yet she could hear a conversation floating through the thin walls; a colloquy from the Library. Known for being impatient and having a tendency to skirt her duties in favor of more interesting activities, it was only typical of the teenage girl to press her ear against the wall to listen in. 

She could remember the exact exchange and the ones that followed exactly. 

"When do you plan to take the... child... to meet her mother?"

"In time, dear."

"Don't you sugarcoat your manner of speech like you did with Mala, you blackguard. You'd better settle sometime― I know you're as sick of the damned child as I am."

The conversation paused. Lune looked at the elaborate wallpaper, her head pressed against it. Then she had been confused. Millicent must have been the child referred to in the conversation, but mother? Vainly she had wondered who had been her mother. She'd previously assumed the female Master, Temeasine Kavaré, had been the girl's mother, but it seemed this assumption was wrong.

"Do you have a set time or shall I take this into my own hands?"

"Patience is a virtue."

"Tch... don't tell me you're planning on stalling this further!"

"Nothing of the sort."

"Decide, then. I'm rather tired of waiting."

Over the next few days she strove to learn more about what was supposedly going to happen to Millicent. Apparently the girl's mother resided, or rather, was "sealed" inside a Cave somewhere. One time she had been passing by and the door to the Library was open a smidge, so she took the opportunity and looked through it.

The two Masters were in the library as always around this time. A large fire was burning in the fireplace. 

The male Master, casually examining a sharp fingernail on his left hand, spoke first. 

"Does a certain date within the next few months appeal to you, dear?"

He cast a rather inquisitive, if not malicious, look towards the nearby Temeasine, who was standing and examining a large book nearby. She pursed her lips in concentration, but after a second or too, she finally responded.

"It sounds good enough, I suppose."

"Suppose? Do you have any doubts about going through― pursuing this? Were you not the very one who said to me 'Hurry then, I'm fed up of such a loathsome, inept girl?'"

"It seems to be you who forget that we would not even have to deal with the wretch if not for your own perversions."

A heavy silence had fallen. Lune attempted to process this. Did this mean...?

"Would you not say that simply leaving her with her mother is not enough?"

"What are you implying, dear?"

"Tch. I'm implying that we take advantage of the fact that the wretch has extramundane blood. I have been reading some of the grimoires that Mala used to possess, and it seems she had discovered a way to... revert the child to a more appreciative state."

"And would this state of existence, as you refer to it, properly get rid of those halfwitted imbeciles acting in the name of so-called righteousness?"

"I have no reason to doubt otherwise."

And so here the three were, hurrying down the hallway, skulking in the shadows as to not get caught. Millicent was in danger― how could they stay here?

The course they were going to take was a simple one. They'd go down the Grand Staircase and from there they'd pass through the Kitchen and down another flight of stairs to the cellar where Shiodd was waiting. Then they'd exit the Manor and go to the Rose Gardens. Then they'd hurry to the city. The snow would cover their footsteps. When the Kavarés woke up the next morning, they'd find Millicent's door ajar and all of them gone. Lune desperately prayed that it all went according to plan.

Millicent's, or Emagine's, eyes looked down at the carpeted stairs they were descending. Was this game a scavenger hunt sort? Were they going and playing with the snow outside? But typically Mosa didn't let her bring Rose. She said it made the rabbit soaked through to drag her about in the slush. So why was she allowed to bring the stuffed rabbit along? She blinked twice tiredly. Her mind swam with confusion. 

They turned left and headed into the drafty kitchen, and then quietly went down into the cellar.

Shiodd was leaning against the wall next to the seldom used exit. His single remaining golden orange eye glittered with anxiety. 

"C'mon." He said in a low, quiet voice, and turned partially, pushing the door open. A cold draft of wind and snow blew into the cellar. Emagine clung to Mosa tiredly. 

In a single-file line, the quartet exited the Manor; Shiodd first, then Mosa carrying the tired girl, and Lune last, who shut the door behind her. The group made their way along the picturesque, snowy landscape, getting ever closer to the Rose Gardens―

"And what would you be doing out here?" The three froze in their tracks at the sound of the two overlapping voices. Slowly, and filled with dread, they turned around.

There stood the Masters, Theodore and Temeasine Kavaré, pointed and accusatory glares at the three runaway servants. Mosa, in a desperate attempt to hide the reason for their escape, covered Emagine with the shawl she wore. The action didn't go unnoticed by Temeasine, who roared with mad laughter that pealed and echoed off of the trees, the brick walls surrounding the Gardens, the foreboding Kavaré-Hepplicaté Manor behind them― it was an awful sound that made the runaways lose hope just hearing it. The terrified Lune almost broke down into tears on the spot. 

Theodore stepped forward, his pale but harsh gleaming yellow eyes fixed upon the shawl that Mosa wore and the hidden Millicent underneath it. "What is it you have under your shawl?" His tone was casual, but a wicked smile danced on his lips.

Millicent, or Emagine, didn't like being under the blanket-like thing that Mosa wore. What sort of game was this? Hide and seek, perhaps? Were the two new voices she heard outside "It"? Had they been found? 

He casually examined a fingernail like he had in the Library― but yet, Mosa noticed with horror, the hand was darkening, turning into the dark clawed hand of a monster, the fingers elongating and the tips of his fingers becoming razor sharp claws.  
Almost casually, he extended the monstrous clawed hand. Like a serpent, a thorned vine snaked along his wrist and shot out, ripping off the green shawl and revealing Emagine.

At the sight of the girl, his harsh yellow gaze soured in disgust. 

A sudden shriek pierced the frigid air. "STOP IT!!"

With a desperate, hurried motion, the hysterical Lune hurled herself at Temeasine in an attempts to at least subdue the female Master, the tears freezing on her cheeks―

Millicent's eyes widened. This wasn't a game, was it?

Lune could barely breathe― and just barely she could tell she had been lifted up into the air. A piercing pain racked her entire body. She managed to look down. Gasping for breath― she saw she'd been impaled. A thorned vine controlled by the female Master below had stabbed her through. She felt dizzy. Vaguely she could tell she was falling. Why was the snow dyed red?

Lune Amanne was dead by the time she hit the frozen ground.

Mosa choked back a horrified squeak, her eyes widening at the scene before her. Her chest heaved. She could feel the tears pricking at her eyes.

She saw Shiodd looking at her, a thinly veiled message hidden in his one-eyed gaze.

Run.

With a start, she turned on her heel and started a mad dash to the Gardens, running as though she'd never run before. She had to get there― how could she fail?! How could she let them hurt Emagine―

Millicent felt a sudden wave of shock and adrenaline go through the woman carrying her. She dropped Rose in her surprise. 

Mosa collapsed, the vine that had just pierced her already slithering back to its Master. Blood stained the front of her dress and seeped into the white snow, staining the white with a harsh red. Millicent wailed, trying desperately to wake the older woman. She placed her small hand on the woman's head, and her eyes flashed a bright pink, but the girl's attempt at magic was to no avail. Mosa Moane was already dead. 

The Masters approached the disraught young girl like a spider approaching its prey. Temeasine stopped around a meter away from the dead Mosa, but Theodore continued, stopping and kneeling in front of the girl so that they were almost the same height. 

"Come on, dear." He said in a voice that was not entirely unkind, but one that did not match the malicious glint in his eyes. The exhausted girl allowed the Master to pick her up and turn back towards the Manor.

"Shall tomorrow be a suitable date to bring the girl to her mother, dear?"

"Needless to say, is it not?"

As the two passed the corpse of Lune, its murderer, Temeasine, glared down at it before finally kicking it away in disgust. 

"Mind your own damned business."

Her sanguine eyes burned in anger for a moment longer before she turned sharply on her heel and entered the Manor after her comrade, closing the door behind her. 

If one were to turn back and look, they would have seen a faint specter of a man, only barely visible thanks to the light of the moon gleaming and reflecting off of the snow. Standing at the entrance to the Rose Gardens, the specter had a sorrowful and sickened look at the carnage. But it turned around, and with an almost transparent hand, it opened the gate and reentered the Gardens, unwilling and unable to bear to look at such things anymore.

And still blood stained the snow.


End file.
